In a few days my youngest daughter goes off to college and the next phase begins for me. Like a river that don't know where it's going (with acknowledgement to Bruce for the lyrics), parenthood is a ride with many unforeseen twists and turns, and it leaves you cold, wet, gasping for air and simultaneously wanting it to stop and wanting it to go on forever. Like the river, I don't think it ever really does stop, it just changes. I'm here for the changes, and any time you kids need an extra paddler or someone to bail (just metaphorically I hope), I'll be there.
Life's been a bit rocky these last 6 months, so I've been noticeably absent from Flickr. Nothing too serious, and I've everything to be grateful for, and no hard setbacks I can blame. Just sometimes the water gets rough and there's nothing for it but to put your head down and paddle like hell. Though I've tried to catch up here and there, my apologies to all my old Flickr friends whose great posts I've missed.
But this here is no river, 'tis the North Atlantic Ocean, the coast of Nova Scotia to be specific. After driving 1200 miles and dropping my oldest daughter off in Halifax NS to finish up her last year of College (we hope!), I got up early in the morning to visit the fantastic rocky beach at Lawrencetown Beach Provincial Park not far east of Halifax. It was one of those days where I gave myself what I thought was a decent buffer before sunrise and then the sky started blowing up almost 40 minutes before actual sunrise, I thought for sure I'd miss it. Thankfully it was one of those delightful sunrises that just keep on going, shifting from dark orange to pinks and yellows. Didn't have much time to scout so I just set the tripod down by the nicest collection of rocks I could find near the entrance and started shooting, being mindful not to get swamped by an errant wave. Escaped with only minor soaker and the equipment still dry, so a successful outing.
This was the first landscape shooting I'd done in several months and now hopefully my inertia is broken and I can hit up Flickr more regularly.
Edit: anyone who's followed me for a while knows that Nova Scotia is one of my favorite places on earth, in no small part because the people are wonderful (mostly) and very friendly. But the Maritimes approach to the pandemic was to try to keep out non-residents as much as possible, using heavy restrictions to prevent the import of Covid cases from outside. This lead to this wonderful bit by the comedy show "This Hour Has 22 Minutes":
youtu.be/K2IWafjn9p0
Thankfully no one told me to Frig Off this time around. Hopefully things are able to return to their normal welcoming ways in the near future.
